Students have played with magnets many times before in informal settings, yet they still have a lot to learn about how magnets work and what they really are, as a lead in to many future topics in and beyond this grade level. The structure of this lesson is designed to get kids thinking about what they don’t know, as opposed to just thinking that they already know it all.
Allowing them the opportunity to work as people do in the science world, often observing benign things in order to formulate hypothesis and eventually form theories and laws as well as highlighting the learning that is going on through the KWL will help to keep students interested.
This lesson will take one day (hour long periods) and will serve as a lead into the unit and be completed in the next lesson.
Opportunities to Learn:
Depth of Knowledge
Todays lesson will ask students to observe, explain, describe and begin to interpret their findings, DOK 2.
Hopefully some students will take this a little farther and draw conclusions based on there experiences, DOK 3 – which will be covered in tommrows lesson
Prerequisite Knowledge
Prior to the lesson the student needs only whatever prior knowledge they have to bring to the table,
• Students will identify magnets and there uses through investigating the properties of magnets.
• Students will make observations of magnetic properties
• Students will make their observations meanigful by acuratly representing them in diagrams.
Instruction:
Opening:
As students enter, Science Starter Magnets KWL will be available to them. The days Question “What can magnets really do? How do they work?” will be written on the board, something students will get used to seeing at the start of each class. The first question being what we will try to answer that day, and the second a longer term question to keep in the back of their mind. This is going to get prior knowledge going, After a few minutes this will be used to spring in to a guided discussion in which students will hypothesize about magnets and their properties and uses. This will also be left in classroom folders; student will complete them as part of a review and study assignment near the end of the unit.
Engagement:
Students have defiantly played with magnets before at some point, this much we know. Because it is important for the students to not only learn more formally from their experiences but also to see how science works we will spend a few minutes talking about how science works (i.e. common phenomena are observed, modeled and tested to create scientific laws) and that is what we are going to do today and tomorrow.
Before Beginning the activity portion of the unit we are going to construct a classroom size KWL chart which will be displayed throughout the unit. As part of a wrap up activity for each class in the unit we are going to add to the what it learned section – helping kids to see their own growth and learning. This chart will be on chart paper and hung in the room.
Once this is done students will have a few possible scenarios of magnetic interactions modeled for them, as well as be briefed on magnet safety (no real danger with the magnets we will be using, but warnings of stronger magnets affecting electronics and healtcare devices). After this each team will be given the following supplies:
• 4 magnets
• Iron fillings
• Golf tee
• Aluminum
• Tin
• Steel
• Nail
• Paperclips
• Rubber
Before allowing the students free range we will go over the observation rubric as well as explain how that will work and the importance of making good observations – a theme in 6th grade.
At this point the students will be allowed to manipulate these materials with teacher guidance and redirection where needed, while filling out the observations sheet which will become the focus of tomorrow’s discussion. These sheets will be collected by me and redistributed for the next day’s lesson, this way i can look over them as well as assure that no one manages to lose it.
Closure:
Students will be rounded up towards the end of class and after they put away their materials there will be a brief discussion of the raw observations, hopefully students will see similar observations, and without being asked will try to sort them out on their own. The key things to focus on will be that magnets can both attract and repel, this may confuse students as the magnets on your fridge are always attracted, students may think that there are differnt magnets as opposed to differnt poles. I also want students to see that in science many people need to observce the same/similar things before it is taken seriously. The discussion will take place tomorrow. I will make note that we will start adding to our KWL chart tomorrow at the end of class, but that students should start to think about what they are learning.
Assessment:
The Observation sheet will be graded based on the rubric. Informal assessment will take place during teacher circulation.
Lesson Plan
Lesson Title:
Intro to magnets What can magnets do?State Standards: GLEs/GSEs
PS3 (5-6) 8bContext of Lesson:
Students have played with magnets many times before in informal settings, yet they still have a lot to learn about how magnets work and what they really are, as a lead in to many future topics in and beyond this grade level. The structure of this lesson is designed to get kids thinking about what they don’t know, as opposed to just thinking that they already know it all.Allowing them the opportunity to work as people do in the science world, often observing benign things in order to formulate hypothesis and eventually form theories and laws as well as highlighting the learning that is going on through the KWL will help to keep students interested.
This lesson will take one day (hour long periods) and will serve as a lead into the unit and be completed in the next lesson.
Opportunities to Learn:
Depth of Knowledge
Todays lesson will ask students to observe, explain, describe and begin to interpret their findings, DOK 2.Hopefully some students will take this a little farther and draw conclusions based on there experiences, DOK 3 – which will be covered in tommrows lesson
Prerequisite Knowledge
Prior to the lesson the student needs only whatever prior knowledge they have to bring to the table,Plans for Differentiating Instruction
N/A to this lessonAccommodations and modifications
N/AEnvironmental factors
Typical classroom setupMaterials
I will need the following•
• Chart Paper for class KWL
• Magnet exploration kit (listed in engagement)
Objectives:
• Students will identify magnets and there uses through investigating the properties of magnets.• Students will make observations of magnetic properties
• Students will make their observations meanigful by acuratly representing them in diagrams.
Instruction:
Opening:
As students enter, Science Starter Magnets KWL will be available to them. The days Question “What can magnets really do? How do they work?” will be written on the board, something students will get used to seeing at the start of each class. The first question being what we will try to answer that day, and the second a longer term question to keep in the back of their mind. This is going to get prior knowledge going, After a few minutes this will be used to spring in to a guided discussion in which students will hypothesize about magnets and their properties and uses. This will also be left in classroom folders; student will complete them as part of a review and study assignment near the end of the unit.Engagement:
Students have defiantly played with magnets before at some point, this much we know. Because it is important for the students to not only learn more formally from their experiences but also to see how science works we will spend a few minutes talking about how science works (i.e. common phenomena are observed, modeled and tested to create scientific laws) and that is what we are going to do today and tomorrow.Before Beginning the activity portion of the unit we are going to construct a classroom size KWL chart which will be displayed throughout the unit. As part of a wrap up activity for each class in the unit we are going to add to the what it learned section – helping kids to see their own growth and learning. This chart will be on chart paper and hung in the room.
Once this is done students will have a few possible scenarios of magnetic interactions modeled for them, as well as be briefed on magnet safety (no real danger with the magnets we will be using, but warnings of stronger magnets affecting electronics and healtcare devices). After this each team will be given the following supplies:
• 4 magnets
• Iron fillings
• Golf tee
• Aluminum
• Tin
• Steel
• Nail
• Paperclips
• Rubber
Before allowing the students free range we will go over the observation rubric as well as explain how that will work and the importance of making good observations – a theme in 6th grade.
At this point the students will be allowed to manipulate these materials with teacher guidance and redirection where needed, while filling out the observations sheet which will become the focus of tomorrow’s discussion. These sheets will be collected by me and redistributed for the next day’s lesson, this way i can look over them as well as assure that no one manages to lose it.
Closure:
Students will be rounded up towards the end of class and after they put away their materials there will be a brief discussion of the raw observations, hopefully students will see similar observations, and without being asked will try to sort them out on their own. The key things to focus on will be that magnets can both attract and repel, this may confuse students as the magnets on your fridge are always attracted, students may think that there are differnt magnets as opposed to differnt poles. I also want students to see that in science many people need to observce the same/similar things before it is taken seriously. The discussion will take place tomorrow. I will make note that we will start adding to our KWL chart tomorrow at the end of class, but that students should start to think about what they are learning.Assessment:
The Observation sheet will be graded based on the rubric. Informal assessment will take place during teacher circulation.Reflections
(only done lesson is enacted)Student Work Sample 1 – Approaching Proficiency:
Student Work Sample 2 – Proficient:
Student Work Sample 3 – Exceeds Proficiency:
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